The Washington Probate Litigation Manual
- matthew3563
- Jul 14
- 3 min read
A free, plain-English manual on Washington probate litigation. Written by a Washington litigation attorney, for the people actually caught in these fights — not for lawyers.
Start here
If someone you trusted is running an estate badly, you are probably being told one of two things: that nothing can be done, or that you need to spend a fortune to find out. Neither is true.
Washington gives you specific, concrete rights. A judge can take an executor off an estate. You can force them to open the books, in writing, on a ten-day clock. A will granting "nonintervention" powers is not the shield people think it is. And most of these fights are lost on deadlines nobody told you about — not on the merits.
This manual explains all of it, in plain English, with the actual statutes linked so you can read them yourself.
The single most common mistake. People go looking in the court file for the estate's inventory, find nothing, and conclude they have no right to see the money. Wrong. Washington law says the inventory "may, but need not be, filed" with the court. It usually isn't. You get it by asking in writing — and once you do, the personal representative has ten days to hand it over. That one paragraph has changed more cases than any argument I make in a brief.
The chapters
The orientation. What probate litigation actually is, who is allowed to bring a case, what TEDRA is and why nearly every estate dispute runs through it, and the deadlines that quietly decide cases before anyone argues the merits.
The two different ways the wrong person comes off an estate — disqualification and removal — every ground a judge can act on, how to force an accounting, what nonintervention powers really mean, and the step-by-step court process. Includes the June 2026 amendments that gave beneficiaries a powerful new tool.
More chapters are being added — will and estate validity, TEDRA mediation and arbitration, creditor claims, small estates, plus a deadlines map and a plain-English glossary. This page is the table of contents; it grows as they publish.
What changed in June 2026 — and why it matters to you
Washington amended its probate code effective June 11, 2026, and one change is genuinely useful if you're being stonewalled:
Any interested person can now demand a report of the estate's affairs, and the personal representative must file it within 90 days. It used to be that only a judge could order one. Now a written demand starts a clock. (They can't be made to file more than two a year, so use it deliberately.)
The same amendments also expanded who is disqualified from serving in the first place — including anyone a court or agency found committed dishonesty, theft, or breach of fiduciary duty in the last 36 months, or whose letters were revoked for cause in the last 24 months.
If you were told a year ago that nothing could be done, the law may have changed under that advice.
How to use this manual
Read the "30-second version" at the top of any chapter first. Every chapter opens with the plain answer. If that's all you need, stop there.
Then read the part that applies to you. The chapters are written to be read on their own — you don't have to start at the beginning.
Click the statutes. Every RCW cited links to the official text at leg.wa.gov. Don't take my word for it. That's the point.
Get the forms from the courts, not from me. Washington's official forms are free at www.courts.wa.gov/forms, and WashingtonLawHelp.org has free plain-language guides. I don't host fill-in forms here — handing you one would be practicing law for you.
Who wrote this
I'm Matthew Cunanan, the founder of DC Law Group (WSBA #42530), a Washington litigation practice. I handle probate, trust, and estate disputes in superior courts across Washington State — appearing by video in every county, and in person for the hearings that need it.
I wrote this because the information people find when they go looking is either a sales pitch or wrong. Sometimes both. Every statute cited here was read against its official text, not summarized from memory.
Need help with a Washington estate fight?
If money is missing, if there's a house or a business in the estate, if the other side has a lawyer, or if a deadline is close — that's the point to call.
Call 206-745-2823 or visit DC Law Group.
This manual is general information about Washington law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws change and every situation is different — for advice about your case, talk to a lawyer.